Tag Archives: AUP

In this final contribution to the University Press Week Blog Tour (November 12-17), Harriet Kim provides a selection of interesting science books that she recently brought back into print as part of UTP's Heritage Book Project. For today's theme of #TurnItUP: Science, Harriet provides some fascinating picks from our backlist.

By Harriet Kim

University of Toronto Press carries a rich history in the breadth and depth of scholarly, reference, and general interest books published since our founding in 1901. Expanding on our tradition of advancing knowledge, the Heritage Book Project aims to increase access to our books by bringing out-of-print titles back into circulation as ebooks and as print-on-demand paperbacks. Titles date from 1928 to 2011 and range in categories from health sciences and medicine to philosophy, anthropology, politics, mathematics, and literature. We are making these important heritage resources available for a new generation of readers and learners to discover and to continue outreach to academic communities in their engagement of critical and innovative scholarship.

When I think of a new generation of readers and learners, I think of many of my friends, colleagues, and peers who are pursuing a variety of career paths and could possibly benefit from having these resources. I think of, for example, those pursuing careers in science – as science educators, climate change researchers, and epidemiologists – and the heritage titles that cater to their work.

I also think of the readers and learners who could benefit from this series in a less traditional or obvious way. Working on this series and having firsthand access to these resources has been a learning process for me, too. I think about a younger version of myself with her love of science and her many dreams of becoming everything from astronomer to zoologist. As someone who pursued a different path from the sciences, this has been a unique way for me to be doing what I am doing in publishing but also continue chasing my curiosity of the sciences.

Here is a roundup of some science titles from Heritage Book Project that piqued my curiosity:

The Snakes of Ontario (1957), by E.B.S Logier, gives an account of "the natural history of snakes, or how to identify those found in Ontario.”

Bacteriology Primer in Air Contamination Control (1967) by V. Victor Kingsley, provides a basic overview of the “problems in bacteriology which would help in the understanding, handling, and moving of 'clean' (uncontaminated) air to and from critical areas.”

The Discovery of Insulin: The Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition (2000), by Michael Bliss, recounts the fascinating story behind the discovery of insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921-22: "a story as much filled with fiery confrontation and intense competition as medical dedication and scientific genius.”

The Sleep of Others and the Transformation of Sleep Research (2007), by Kenton Kroker, is the “first ever history of sleep research, drawing on a wide range of material to present the story of how an investigative field – at one time dominated by the study of dreams – slowly morphed into a laboratory-based discipline.”

The magnitude of such a project is not lost on me – from the figurative weight of UTP’s history represented in this series to the literal weight of all the books that are sent for scanning! Since 2014, we have brought nearly 1,000 titles back into circulation and over 1,600 titles will end up in the Heritage Project. It has been and continues to be a tremendous effort supported by continuously improving scanning and printing technology and more importantly, many people at University of Toronto Press, University of Toronto libraries, and the Toronto Reference Library.

Whether you are reading any of these titles out of interest (and maybe even indulging your nostalgia of a childhood dream) or as a way to support your research and work, I hope they will be invaluable learning resources for you, too.

To continue on the final day of the University Press Week Blog Tour, check out posts by these other fine university presses:

In this contribution to the University Press Week Blog Tour (November 12-17), our editor, Stephen Shapiro, reflects on the enduring power of university press publishing. When considering today's theme of #TurnItUP: History, Stephen goes beyond just our history list to explore the legacy of what we do as a publisher.

By Stephen Shapiro

The theme of today’s contribution to the University Press Week Blog Tour is #History. As one of three acquiring editors for history who work at University of Toronto Press, I assumed that I would write about some of the excellent history books that UTP publishes every year. Many of those books reflect the press’ mission to advance scholarly knowledge and our authors’ commitment to #TurnItUP by amplifying stories and voices from the margins, whether those are geographic, social, or temporal. Indigenous history, queer history, and migration and memory studies are only some of the areas where UTP is proud to bring important, often overlooked, issues to public attention.

However, the more I dug into the press’ backlist to write about those themes, the more I was reminded that they were just a small slice of the publishing that University of Toronto Press has done over the past 117 years. A quick look uncovered some eclectic bestsellers from the press’ past, like Frank Parker Day’s novel Rockbound, first published in 1928 and re-issued in 1973 by UTP, which became a CanLit smash hit after it won the first CBC Canada Reads competition in 2005. Or E.H. Moss’s Flora of Alberta (revised by John G. Packer in 1983), which seems to still have a devoted following in that province. Other strong sellers include the works of Canadian Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan, whose papers are held at the Lonergan Research Institute at Toronto. UTP published the first volume of the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan in 1988 and should complete the twenty-five volume series, with any luck, in 2020. It is only one of several major series at the press that have taken twenty or more years to complete (the eighty-nine volume Collected Works of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a truly herculean project, began in 1968 and is still ongoing here). Like many university presses, UTP has to balance obligations to stay the course with the need to encourage the latest trends in scholarship (like those fields mentioned above that barely existed in academia in 1968, when the Erasmus project began), but it’s humbling as an editor to think the manuscripts on my (virtual) desk today might still be relevant fifty-plus years from now.

Of course, no editor goes into a project thinking they are handling a future classic. But I take comfort in knowing that, smash hit or not, the books UTP publishes will be out there, making a contribution to knowledge, fifty or more years on. That’s a consequence of unsung work all across the press, from the managing editors whose XML workflow helps us “future-proof” our e-books to the production department, printing our physical copies on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper, and a sales and marketing team that aims to put books not just in the hands of consumers today but also in libraries around the world. UTP’s own heritage is being preserved at the University of Toronto, where they fill 1,070 boxes spanning 450 linear metres (almost 1,500 linear feet) … so far. According to our website, right now the press has 4,898 different books either in print or forthcoming. With any luck, they’ll all still be available to #TurnItUP in another 117 years.

To continue on Day Four of the University Press Week Blog Tour, check out posts by these other fine university presses:

In this contribution to the University Press Week Blog Tour (November 12-17), Harriet Kim provides a selection of interesting politics titles that she recently brought back into print as part of UTP's Heritage Book Project. For today's theme of #TurnItUP: Politics, Harriet provides some useful historical perspective.

By Harriet Kim

University of Toronto Press carries a rich history in the breadth and depth of scholarly, reference, and general interest books published since our founding in 1901. Expanding on our tradition of advancing knowledge, the Heritage Book Project aims to increase access to our books by bringing out-of-print titles back into circulation as ebooks and as print-on-demand paperbacks. Titles date from 1928 to 2011 and range in categories from health sciences and medicine to philosophy, anthropology, politics, mathematics, and literature. We are making these important heritage resources available for a new generation of readers and learners to discover and to continue outreach to academic communities in their engagement of critical and innovative scholarship.

With all the different titles that have gone through the Heritage Book Project process, working on this series has been a unique learning process for me. As I try to put into words the scope of the Heritage Book Project, I reflect about what it means to bring back books that matter. Many of the books themselves are old (again, some are as old as 1928!) and/or the subject matter studies a time period that feels removed or irrelevant to us today. However, it is notable that some of the titles feel like they could have been written in today’s political climate, which tells me how necessary it is to learn from what has happened in the past to inform us of what is happening now and of how to move forward.

If you are interested in reading some politics books that seem to stand the test of time, here is a round-up of titles that might be of interest:

The Quest for Justice: Aboriginal Peoples and Aboriginal Rights (1985), edited by Menno Boldt and J. Anthony Long, is a “collection of many voices from representatives of the aboriginal people’s organizations, of governments, and of a variety of academic disciplines. The issues of aboriginal rights and of what these rights mean in terms of land and sovereignty has become increasingly important on the Canadian political agenda.”

The magnitude of such a project is not lost on me – from the figurative weight of UTP’s history represented in this series to the literal weight of all the books that are sent for scanning! Since 2014, we have brought nearly 1,000 titles back into circulation and over 1,600 titles will end up in the Heritage Project. It has been and continues to be a tremendous effort subject to continuously changing and improving scanning and printing technology. More importantly, it has been an effort supported by many people at University of Toronto Press, University of Toronto libraries, and the Toronto Reference Library.

Politics can be a challenging conversation to broach and it can be hard to know where to start. Thoughtful and interesting books can be a start to engage in conversations with peers, academics, librarians, and many others. I hope these heritage titles will be a helpful resource for you, too.

To continue on Day Two of the University Press Week Blog Tour, check out posts by these other fine university presses:

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